Dear Theophilus Archive: October 2002
New Noon Tune
By Tom Loyd
Our new noon service has blasted off, and the Lord is really blessing us with engaging and dynamic times of worship. The service features a new chapel, new sound system and new full praise band, but it is the same Spirit who first moved in each of us that draws us to Him every Sunday. This article, however, is not primarily to advertise the service; it is to share with the body how God’s hand has prepared and provided for the needs of His people.
You may think of the noon service as brand new, but it really is not. It is what the original two o’clock service envisioned, only on a larger scale. The original second service began four years ago with a vision to reach the changing needs of our church with a more contemporary, less formal, intimate service (these were the pre-praise song days for our first service…yes, there was a time when we worshipped God without a guitar and praise songs).
So the second service was launched, and went through a lot of ups and downs. First service eventually began to incorporate praise songs, and the two o’clock service began to look like the morning service, only with a smaller crowd. As time went on, second service grew smaller and the PM service committee and worship team wrestled with ways to make the service more effective. What we as committee members viewed as hardship, God used to mold us and our service. He raised up a handful of committed servants who were devoted to seeing God move in the second service. Eventually, something more drastic had to change, because our first service had reached its capacity and the only way to grow our congregation was by growing the second service. This led to our renovation of the third floor and the change in service time and style. Little did we know that the Lord would take our little bit of devotion and transform it into the amazing times of worship we have now.
Many of these servants are now continuing the labor through the praise team and PM small group. There is still quite a ways to go, for we do not believe this to be the climax of what God has in store for our church in the noon service. We have already experienced significant changes from our kick-off service, where we worshipped on a dusty concrete floor on a hot, humid August day without AC, to gathering nearly 150 worshippers on a Sunday afternoon. To say the least, we are all very excited. Not so much about the service itself, but for how God is moving in our church. We believe revival is coming and are very privileged to be a part of His hand extending towards His people. So if you haven’t had a chance to join us for worship, I highly encourage every member of our congregation to come and see more of how He is moving in our Emmanuel community.
Click here to view pixs of the 12PM service debute, on August 18, 2002
